Friday, February 06, 2015

Migration has always been a fundamental part of European
history. The UN estimates that more than 150,000 migrants and asylum seekers
entered Europe in 2014 by sea, compared to 80,000 in 2013, as conditions
worsened in places like Syria.

François Crépeau is an international law professor at McGill
University. He has been appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the
Human Rights of Migrants in 2011. He
said the EU must accept that migrants
will continue to enter the EU by any means possible, and therefore must offer
incentives for migrants to use official channels of entrance. According to
Crépeau, sealing the borders, as nationalist populist groups call for, is not
sustainable and will further migrant suffering. Excessive border security
policies have reportedly created more porous borders, as migrants seek other
avenues beside official channels to enter the EU. Push factors, such as war,
poverty, natural disasters, persecution and oppression, and pull factors,
including Europe's unrecognized labor needs, are unlikely to change in the
foreseeable future. Without proper channels of entry, Crépeau says migrants
entering by unlawful means are further pushed underground, creating conditions
of alienation, discrimination and marginalization. Crépeau claims this is
counterproductive, empowering smuggling rings and disenfranchising migrants. In one report his agency writes:

“It is paradoxical that, in the name of securing borders,
European States have actually lost control over their borders, as flexible and
opportunistic smuggling rings will generally be ahead of the game. Prohibitions
and repressive policies, without regular migration channels for asylum seekers
and much needed low-wage migrants, only entrench smuggling operations and
underground labour markets where unscrupulous recruiters and employers exploit
undocumented migrants, and increase the precariousness of the migrants’
situation, resulting in more deaths at sea and more human rights violations…. The
EU cannot expect Syrians to live in camps or cities in Lebanon or Turkey
indefinitely, with many having no prospects for a better life for themselves or
their families, while the EU stalls in making a commitment to a meaningful
refugee resettlement programme. If nothing else is available to them, they will
take their chances with smugglers in order to provide a future for themselves
and their children, as many of us would do in similar circumstances.”

“Any approach that omits to fully integrate human rights and
legal guarantees can be termed repressive… , such an approach will only serve
to fuel xenophobia, discrimination and marginalization of migrants, which may
have the effect of enabling a culture of impunity around the violation of
migrants’ rights, and cement an anti-migration attitude, as well as
contributing towards the rise of verbal and physical violence against migrants…
Furthermore, any failure to address the pull factors for irregular migrants,
and in particular Europe’s demand for a seasonal, easily exploitable workforce,
must be addressed. Combating irregular migration will be much more targeted and
effective when a genuine effort is made to treat migrants with dignity and
offer them processes that include robust legal guarantees and economic and
social support. Migration policies based on deterrence are fundamentally at
odds with human rights obligations…”